The Indian team will clash with Pakistan in their first match of the Asia Cup 2022 Super 4s stage on September 4, 2022, at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai. India had defeated Pakistan in a thrilling encounter in their group match and something similar is expected here.
While India had comfortably qualified for the Super 4s stage by defeating Pakistan and Hong Kong, the Men in Green came into this stage by decimating the Hong Kong team by a record 155 runs after bowling them out for the lowest Asia Cup T20 total of 38 while chasing 193 runs.
India will have to make some significant changes given injury concerns in the camp and considering the same, here is the COC Predicted Playing XI for the Indian team.
While the top three of the Indian batting line up- KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli- are expected to be the same, there will be pressure on KL Rahul to either perish or score quickly, in order to not put pressure on the batter at the other end.
Rohit Sharma also needs a big score, as he has failed to capitalize despite getting starts. Virat Kohli is slowly, but surely getting back into his groove, and no other opposition better than Pakistan to fully get back into the form that has made him a legend.
The changes in the Indian XI will be made in the middle order given the injury to Ravindra Jadeja, which has ruled him out of the Asia Cup and possibly out of the T20 World Cup as well. India will need to either pick Akshar Patel in the XI as a like-to-like replacement or bring in Rishabh Pant for that left-hander to break the monotony.
Pakistan has two spinners who will bring the ball into the left-hander and Pant is merciless against such bowlers. This might mean Dinesh Karthik having to warm the bench with Deepak Hooda coming in as a finisher and possibly bowl an over or two to Pakistan left-handers.
Another change will be to the main bowling attack after Avesh Khan was reportedly under the weather and there are question marks over his availability. His form has not been very good with the ball and Indian team management might want to bring in Ravi Bishnoi, a googly bowler, given Pakistan's middle order’s struggles against quality spin.
Hardik Pandya will have to be the third pacer in this match, with Arshdeep and Bhuvneshwar taking the lead and Yuzvendra Chahal doing his magic in the middle overs.
This will be a crunch match for both teams as a win here will do wonders for their chances of qualifying for the Asia Cup final.
Here is the COC Predicted Team India Playing XI:
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
